Shelburne Falls is not a town but a village surrounding the Deerfield River, made up of the commercial centers of the towns of Shelburne on the river’s east bank and Buckland on the west. Before the industrial age hit Franklin County, salmon and shad swam up the river’s winding course to spawn, giving the area the name “Salmon Falls.” Both Native Americans and Colonial settlers avidly fished there. In 1743 the General Court “ordered that Salmon Fishing Falls in Deerfield River, so called, be reserved for the use of the public, with twenty acres around them for the convenience of fishing.” The damming of the Deerfield River brought the industrial age to Salmon Falls, with large and small mills and factories springing up on both sides. Today, Shelburne Falls is a tourist destination, attracting visitors to its glacial potholes in the Deerfield River, the Bridge of Flowers (a former trolley bridge turned garden, tended by the Shelburne Falls Women’s Club), and the shops and galleries of a thriving arts community.